The growth potential of the Polish construction market will remain significant through 2028 on the back of the continuation of ambitious road and railway construction projects, the energy transition of the Polish economy, the development of e-commerce, growing trends of nearshoring and friendshoring, and an upturn in the military construction segment. A vast majority of projects underway or planned to be implemented are located in the six most developed regions, which jointly account for two-thirds of the construction market.
Growing value of key projects
The total value of 960 largest investment projects underway or planned in the 16 regions of Poland is estimated at around PLN 865 billion (€190 billion), compared to PLN 690 billion in the previous year, according to the findings of the latest report from research firm Spectis, “Construction market in Poland 2023-2028 – an analysis of 16 voivodships”. Such a sharp jump in the value of the key projects was driven by a hike in the number of multi-billion power projects and across-the-board price increases in all segments of the construction market.
For the needs of the report, the Spectis team have reviewed a set of almost 1,000 projects that will make the biggest contribution to the future economic developments in the construction markets locally in the entire country. The study focused on the top 60 projects in each of the voivodships: 30 building construction projects and 30 civil engineering projects. The total value of the flagship projects underway is PLN 152 billion, whereas projects in the tender, planning or early concept stage are valued at PLN 713 billion.
The average value of projects covered in the report is nearly PLN 900 million per project (compared to PLN 720 million in the previous year): the average figure for building structures stands at PLN 434 million, and it is PLN 1.37 billion for civil engineering structures. As far as civil engineering projects are concerned, the exponential average value for civil engineering projects has been driven by several mega-projects worth a few dozen billion zlotys. However, projects of that size are typically subject to a serious risk of delay. On top of that, some of them may never be completed at all.
Pomorskie and Mazowieckie on top
A study of the investment plans indicates that Pomorskie and Mazowieckie are in the lead in terms of project value. The value of the top 60 projects in these regions exceeds PLN 130 billion.
In Pomorskie, the leading segments will include power and industrial construction, hydro-engineering, railway construction, road construction, and residential construction. As far as Mazowieckie is concerned, the largest number of projects are planned in the following segments: power and industrial construction, road construction, office construction, hydro-engineering, railway construction, and industrial and warehouse construction.
Wielkopolskie is ranked in the third position with projects valued at over PLN 100 billion, including over PLN 90 billion represented by civil engineering projects, mostly power, road, and railway construction projects.
The following positions, in terms of the total value of projects, are occupied by Slaskie, Dolnoslaskie, and Malopolskie (over PLN 60 billion).
Plans for nuclear power plant, Central Transportation Port and more
Other than the Central Transportation Port, CPK (Mazowieckie), which is being prepared, and two nuclear power plants (Pomorskie, Wielkopolskie), noteworthy civil engineering projects include Gdansk Port – Central Port, Gdansk-Warsaw waterway, a copper mine (Lubuskie), the Silesian Canal, the Lodz Fabryczna-Lublinek railway tunnel, the Podleze-Szczyrzyc-Tymbark/Mszana Dolna railway line (Malopolskie), the north-south energy bridge, the extension of the A4 motorway, the S6 Szczecin Western Bypass, and several modular SMR reactors.
Besides CPK, large building construction public projects in the planning stage also include Palac Saski, the Research and Analysis Centre of the National Institute of Public Health-National Institute of Hygiene, the extension and upgrading of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Oncology Centre (Mazowieckie), University Hospital in Swilcza (Podkarpackie), Oncology hospital in Wroclaw (Dolnoslaskie).
Large-scale building construction projects planned in the industrial sector, which can influence the development of entire regions, include the Intel semiconductor assembly and test plant, the Mercedes Benz electric-only vans plant, and the Bosch heat pump plant (Dolnoslaskie); the Izera electric car plant (Slaskie), and the Giga PV cells plant (Slaskie); a plant manufacturing offshore wind farm components (Pomorskie).
Major mixed-use projects combining residential and commercial space that, as a matter of fact, will constitute entire new districts and are currently in the preparation, design or concept stage include Towarowa 22 (Mazowieckie), Essa Kliny (Malopolskie), Wolne Tory (Wielkopolskie), Nowy Welnowiec (Slaskie), and Gdynia Centrum (Pomorskie).
